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Dewey the Feline Librarian

In 2008 there were two great books published about cats, Making Rounds with Oscar, by David Dosa, M.D., which I wrote about previously as a blog and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched The World, by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. If you love true stories about cats, and how incredible these four legged mind and emotion readers can be, then read these very fine books.

Without ruining Dewey’s story the book opens with Dewey being put in a library drop off slot on a night where the temperature was twenty below zero. I suspect that who ever put him there may have actually thought that the library slot, which was attached to the library, was a warm safe place for a kitten to be until someone could find him. As we learn very quickly this is far from the truth but Dewey survives this ordeal to become an international legend in the small town in Iowa where all of this takes place.

If you haven’t read the book yet I won’t spoil it by revealing any more about it other then to say it follows Dewey and one of the people who takes care of him over a period of time as each faces life’s constant ups and downs. And how each learns to lean on the love and promise of the other to face some of life’s more challenging moments. And along the way everyone who comes into contact with them is forever changed because of it. The story quite simply shows how spirit can triumph over all obstacles if you just believe and give it a chance.

The book is pretty short, a mere 277 pages, but it is so well written that you feel as if you experienced the story first hand. And I recently heard, I don’t know if it’s true or not, that someone in Hollywood wants to make the book into a film. After you read about what Dewey accomplished and how he empathically was able to read the humans that constantly surrounded him. You begin to wonder how any director could ever find another cat that could recreate Dewey’s experience and life. All of our pets are smart but Dewey was a special breed who knew exactly what his roll in his world of that library was. Dewey had his own magic of empathy that was perfectly suited to his surroundings.

I suspect that all cats and dogs are empathic by nature perhaps that’s something developed as a survival skill that many humans have lost. But it also makes me wonder if people who are empathic might not be able to learn quite a bit about handling their own abilities by just focusing in on our domesticated friends and sensing how they deal with their abilities.

You can draw your own conclusions but the book is definitely worth the time to sit and read. And who knows, you might learn something about yourself as well? I did!